President Lincoln Mourned at the U.S. Capitol

Lying in state at the U.S. Capitol has been an American tradition since Senator Henry
Clay died in 1852. But it was the body of Abraham Lincoln, the first president to
be assassinated, which has forever hallowed the spot.

On April 19, 1865, President Lincoln's remains arrived here at 3:00 p.m., following a
White House funeral and procession down Pennsylvania Avenue.
While artillery thundered a salute, soldiers bore the coffin up the eastern
steps where six and one-half weeks earlier he delivered his famous
Second Inaugural Address.

A New York Herald reporter contrasted the two events. "Then
the President lived and now he lay in his coffin, murdered by an assassin. Then
he spoke pious words of peace and good will, and of his steadfast determination
to preserve the Union. Now he spoke still more powerfully in his death, and
every man felt the force of the lesson..."

The services in the great rotunda would be private on this day, but crowds
had flocked to the grounds since morning, anticipating the great procession. One
reporter noted, "The people gathered in groups, picnicked on the grass or covered the marble steps."

Meanwhile, under the great dome workmen had draped the massive paintings and sculpture
in black cloth, adding a black sash to the statue of George Washington. In the
center of the room stood a catafalque, now ready to receive Lincoln's body.
This small wooden platform later became modified to hold modern caskets,
but on this day it was covered with black broadcloth trimmed with silver fringe
and stars. To honor Lincoln, the wartime president, two muskets with bayonets and
two sword bayonets stood crossed on either side.

At 3:30 p.m. twelve soldiers from the Veteran Reserve Corps laid the president's coffin
on the catafalque, and invited dignitaries took their places nearby. They included guests
such as Robert Todd Lincoln, the president's eldest son, the new president and
most of his cabinet, high-ranking military men, delegations from Illinois and
Kentucky, and members of the press.

A reporter wrote, "No flag was displayed in the rotunda. On every hand were
the black hangings and the black crepe, and the effect was inexpressively
gloomy." Dr. Phineas D. Gurley, the Lincoln family's Washington pastor,
read a burial service which moved many listeners to tears, then offered a
prayer and benediction. By 4:00 p.m. the service concluded and guests
began to drift away. A reporter noticed that the president's son Robert and
President Andrew Johnson were among the first to leave and
Lieutenant General Grant and Vice Admiral Farragut were among the last.

As visitors moved out of the room, James Nokes, the public gardener, arrived with baskets
of flowers which he arranged around the coffin. Then the rotunda was cleared
and soldiers were stationed by the doors leading to the room and elsewhere
in the building. During the evening the 24th Veteran Reserve Corps guarded
the remains and the building, relieved the next morning by members of the 12th
Veteran Reserve Corps.

A reporter wrote that after the burial service concluded the city resumed a
more normal pace. "Still, no one forgets that in the heart of the
Capitol our murdered President sleeps to-night, beneath the statue of that
liberty for which he died, and that to-morrow the people of this city, whom
he protected and who loved and honored him, are to see his face for the
last time."

Public Viewing at the Capitol

Finally, at 8:00 a.m. on April 20, the public was allowed to view President
Lincoln in the rotunda. The brilliant sunshine of the previous day had given
way to rain, soaking those who endured the wait. A New York Times reporter said
"thousands wended their way up the Capitol steps, into the grand rotunda,
by the bier and coffin of the President, and then out at the eastern entrance. The
people clung to their friend with tenacity, and their silent homage was deep
and tearful."

A Washington reporter wrote, "The number viewing the remains is very
large, the crowd passing through at the rate of 3,500 per hour." He said
the total was about 40,000, but if the weather been better "the number
would have been probably twice as many. The coffin was covered with a
profusion of natural flowers, from the hand of affection."

Reporter Noah Brooks, who knew the Lincoln family well, was allowed to
view the spectacle from atop the Capitol dome. He wrote, "Looking down
from that lofty point, the sight was weird and memorable. Directly beneath
me lay the casket in which the dead President lay at full length, far, far
below; and, like black atoms moving over a sheet of gray paper, the
slow-moving mourners, seen from a perpendicular above them, crept
silently in two dark lines across the pavement of the rotunda, forming an
ellipse around the coffin and joining as they advanced toward the eastern
portal and disappeared."

Early the next day Lincoln's body would arrive at a railroad depot, bound for
the long journey to his burial site in Springfield, Illinois. The
black-draped railroad car also contained the coffin of his son Willie, who died in the White
House at age 11. A reporter noted that Lincoln came to Washington as "untried, unpopular,
and almost despised," but was now "the recipient of an homage and devotion unexampled in the
history of the nation."

It is appointed unto men once to die. The dust returns to the earth as it was,
and the spirit to God who gave it. All flesh is but as grass, and the glory of
man as the flower of grass; the grass witherith, and the flower thereof fadeth
away. We know that we must die and go to the house appointed for all living.
For what is our life? It is even as a vapor that appeareth for a little time and
then vanishes away. Therefore, be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye
think not the Son of Man cometh. Let us pray. Lord, so teach us to number
our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Wean us from this
transitory world. Turn away our eyes from beholding vanity. Lift our
affections to the things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. There may our treasure be, and there may our hearts be also.
Wash us in the blood of Christ. Clothe us in the righteousness of Christ.
Renew and sanctify us by His word and spirit. Lead us in the paths of
piety for his namesake. Gently, Lord, so gently guide us through all the
duties and changes and trials of our earthly pilgrimage. Dispose us to
pass the time of our sojourning here in fear, denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously and godly in this present world;
and when, at the last, our time shall come to die, may we be gathered to
our fathers, leaving the testimony of a good conscience in the communion
of the Christian church, in the confidence of a certain faith, in the comfort
of a reasonable religious and holy hope, in favor with Thee, our God, and
in perfect charity with the world, all which we ask, through Jesus Christ,
our blessed Lord and Redeemer. Amen.

For as much as it hath pleased Almighty God, in His wise providence, to
take out of this clay tabernacle the soul that inhabited it, we commit its
decaying remains to their kindred element -- earth to earth, ashes to ashes,
dust to dust -- looking for the general resurrection through our Lord Jesus
Christ, at whose coming to judge the world earth and sea shall give up
their dead, and the corruptible bodies of them that sleep in Him shall be
fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby
He is able to subdue all things unto Himself. Wherefore let us comfort
one another with these words.

And now may the God of Peace, that
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the
sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect
in every good work, to do His will, working in you that which is well
pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, the resurrection and the life,
our Redeemer and our hope, to whose care we now commit these
precious remains, and to whose name be glory forever and ever. Amen.